This invention relates to an improved relief surface globe and to an improved method for manufacturing a globe with a relief surface.
As used herein, the term "relief" or "in relief" refers to the configuration of the surface of a globe resulting from embossing or forming the material used to make a globe so that mountains, valleys and other terrestrial features are reproduced three dimensionally on the globe surface.
Providing maps in relief has been known since at least 1908, see e.g., Patesson, U.S. Pat. No. 878,308. Globes or spherical representations of the earth having relief areas were known at least since 1962, see e.g., Case, U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,629; Gilmer, Jr. et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,124; and Synder, U.S. Pat. No. 3,225,461.
Heretofore, in the process for forming a relief map or globe, an embossing step is performed on a flat, pre-printed sheet of plastic either prior to or simultaneous with the forming of the sheet into a hemispherical shape. Such embossing and globe formation is augmented by vacuum forming techniques. The structural support for the relief area, as taught by the prior art, is a natural consequence of the inherent rigidity of the plastic material used to make the globe. Forming a thick printed sheet of material is an expensive and difficult task. The present invention provides an improved method for forming a relief globe particularly from a translucent material.